Slumber Parties and Poly Sci
by Aidrienne Levine
Summary: Tommy sleeps over Merton's house, but discovers an unusual book. How will he face Merton now? M/T


Hey! This is a little fic I thought up when I was watching "Labyrinth". The best movie ever. I hope you like it, please review.I didn't get enough love as a child and now I am emotionally scarred. I need the praise 8^). I don't own any of these characters. If I did, I would make the show a lot more "interesting".  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
"Thanks again for letting me stay here tonight." Tommy said as he chucked his duffel bag onto Merton's bed.  
  
Merton grinned, rather uneasily, yet smiled sincerely when Tommy flopped down on the bed next to his bag. Then Mert pushed the other boy's feet off the bed. " It would've been rather hard into explain to your cousin why you get hairy at night. Thankfully, my family goes away for Thanksgiving, leaving me behind with a sudden case of migraines I always get during the holidays. Ahh, blessed solitude."  
  
"Sorry to spoil it." Tommy replied, in mock sadness.  
  
"Aww, you couldn't if you tried." Merton said, blushing slightly.  
  
"So what are we going to do tonight? I suspect we won't be big game hunting or howling at the moon." Tommy howled quietly, making Merton laugh.  
  
"I'm sorry, Mr. Furface, but I was planning on watching the Labyrinth on the big screen, then going to bed."  
  
A look of astonishment crossed Tommy's fur ridden face. "How long could that movie be? Four hours?"  
  
"Some of us enjoy sleeping." Merton said as he grabbed a black fleece blanket off his bed and a DVD off his shelf. Tommy followed him solemnly upstairs to the living room. He popped the popcorn as Merton set up the DVD player. When Tommy came back into the living room, Merton was snuggled up in his blanket and watching the opening credits.  
  
"Thanks for waiting!" Tommy said sarcastically as he sat down, and grabbed an edge of the blanket for himself. Merton just grabbed a handful of popcorn and grinned. "I thought you only watched horror flicks."  
  
"Oh, yeah, but not late at night. You know I." Merton realized with a start what he was saying, and then he promptly changed the subject. "Shh! It's starting!"  
  
Patting Merton's spiky head, Tommy laughed. "Aww, will widdle Merwdy have bad dweams?"  
  
For that comment he received a punch on the arm and a dirty look, but Merton didn't come up with a come back because the opening strains of "Underground" were starting.  
  
The boys watched the movie, sitting close enough to share the popcorn and the blanket. To Merton, perhaps not quite close enough. But then again, nothing's perfect, at least Tommy would rather sleep at Merton's than one of his jock buddies houses. Merton grinned at that thought, but then refocused on the movie. Tommy gradually unwolfed, although it was still night, the moon set very early. Merton felt much more comfortable not sitting next to a werewolf anymore. When Labyrinth finally ended around midnight, Merton stood up and stretched. "Time to hit the bed."  
  
Gasping indignantly at the thought, Tommy followed his friend downstairs, commenting, "Fine, but I get the bed."  
  
Now it was the other boy's turn to gasp indignantly. "No way! My house, I get the bed."  
  
" But I'm a guest!" Tommy stated  
  
"Well, It's my house" Merton restated.  
  
"Well, I'm a werewolf. Let's wrestle for it." Tommy offered, something Merton obviously had to refuse, on account of his calcium deficiency of course. Finally Merton succeeded his right, on the promise he would get it tomorrow night.  
  
"Good night, Tommy." Merton mumbled, half-asleep already in his nest of blankets on the floor.  
  
"Night Mert. Don't let Rasputin bite." He chuckled at what he though was a witty comment. Then he rolled over onto his back when he realized Mert wasn't going to comment back. He himself was nowhere near sleep. If his friend hadn't have looked so tired, he never would've agreed to it in the first place. Poor little Merton.  
  
When he heard soft snores on the ground, Tommy looked over to find the little guy asleep already, looking rather angelic in the innocence of sleep. He decided he may as well try and sleep too, but when he slid his hand under the pillow to get comfortable, he jammed his fingers against something.  
  
Biting his lip hard to keep from wolfing out, Tommy pulled out a "Political" Science book from under Merton's pillow. He grinned as he remembered Mert's desperate search for it, although some of the examinations for the research had been rather unpleasant. Having nothing better to do, and being on the verge of rewolfing-out Tommy decided to flip through it.  
  
Most of it was boring, scientifical stuff, although he did look pretty hot in some of those pictures. But one chapter caught his attention, "The Mating habits of a Teenage Werewolf". Tommy's jaw dropped, Merton certainly hadn't mentioned this chapter! And where the hell had Mert gotten these pictures?! Tommy certainly didn't remember posing for those! As if all that weren't bad enough, on the margins were some hand-written notes.  
  
"In my opinion, I don't think Tommy is attracted to Lori at all.The transformation seems to have affected his choice of partners.Two (three if you count Tori) 'mates' in two years? Something doesn't add up.Tommy seems to ignore all advances, even those by people close to him, like me. Perhaps he will only mate with another of his breathen.if so, that might explain his attraction to the devious Miss Baxter."  
  
Tommy had to bite his tongue again too keep from wolfing out and forcing an explanation out of Merton. Then something sank in.  
  
"Ignore all advances.like me."  
  
His eyes grew wide as he stared at that note. Merton had been making advances on him? Where had he missed that? As Tommy read more, his eyes, yellow-tinged, kept growing wider. Not all of these comments were G- rated, and more than one of them pointed out Merton's attraction to him. A few actually made him blush! Merton was practically in love with him!  
  
Well, wasn't it uncomfortable to be sleeping in Merton's bed? Tommy suddenly wished he had gone to sleep wearing more than just his boxers.  
  
How was Tommy supposed to face his friend now? He'd had a hard enough time being around Mert when they both liked Lori! Tommy decided tat the best thing to do was forget it; Merton had probably written those things just in a purely experimental fashion. Research purposes only, that sort of thing. Besides, Tommy had tried to think of the best solution to this problem for hours, and he hadn't come up with any good ideas other than to pretend it had never happened. He slid the book under the pillow, and finally dozed off to sleep, much more on his mind than before.  
  
  
  
  
  
The jock woke up way to early for his tastes. Damn internal clock! Tommy wondered briefly if the inner wolf was somehow connected to his inner clock, but decided to ask Merton instead of continuing to think about it. But then he remembered exactly what he had found out about Merton, and figured they probably would already have enough to talk about. No, that wasn't right, he had decided not to mention all those notes. He was going to ignore that. Then something happened which made it pretty impossible.  
  
"Tooommmmyyy!!" Merton moaned, very loudly, in his sleep. Then he woke up, sweating and grinning after what had obviously been a good dream. Then his eyes widened in shock. Swallowing hard, Merton managed to get out, "Um- hi, good morning Tommy."  
  
"Good morning," Tommy answered, looking extremely awkward.  
  
Scrunching up his eyes, Merton asked meekly, "I just screamed your name, didn't I?"  
  
"Yup." Tommy nodded grimly.  
  
Merton rested his pretty little head against his hand for a moment, contemplating his options. Then, deliberately not looking at Tommy, he said, "I was having a nightmare."  
  
"Didn't sound like a nightmare to me." Tommy sullenly said. "A nightmare scream would be more like"-High Merton falsetto-"Tommy!!"  
  
Merton straightened up (he had the decency to have worn pajama bottoms), and smiled. "Okay. Let's have some French toast!"  
  
"We're not going to talk about this?" Tommy asked, as Merton scurried around the Lair, putting away the blankets he slept on, pulling on a shirt.  
  
"Don't delay, Tomay" Mert drawled, deliberately mispronouncing the name. "Get them while the griddles hot."  
  
"I think we should talk about this!" Tommy shouted as Merton bounced up the Lair stairs. He stood up to follow him, but tripped slightly on the tangled sheets Mert left behind. By the time he caught up with him, his friend was in the kitchen.  
  
"And I'll get the eggs and cinnamon, you like yours with cinnamon? And then we can make some homemade syrup, ever have homemade syrup?" Merton asked, without looking up from the bowl he was beating furiously. "I should probably make some eggs maybe."  
  
"Merton!" The brown haired boy said finally, interrupting his friend. Merton turned around to face him, eyes unusually wide. "You're babbling again! Calm down man."  
  
Ignoring the kind, sympathetic look on Tommy's face, Merton continued to mix the eggs and milk. "Do you like your eggs scrambled or fried? Tommy?" There was no answer. "Poached then?" Merton asked, turning around nervously.  
  
His friend was sitting on the table, his head down and his arms over it. He seemed to be nervous, or at least emotionally charged. His muffled voice said hesitantly, "I know, Merton. I found the Poly-Sci book last night, I know what you think of me."  
  
From Tommy's viewpoint, he could only hear Merton's gasp, but he could imagine the look of shock, realization, questioning. He heard Merton shuffle across the kitchen and sit down across from him. He heard Merton's sharp intake of breath before he spoke, "You probably want to go home now, huh?"  
  
Staying silent, unintentionally ignoring his friend for a moment, Tommy tried to sort out his *own* emotions. Now he had to bring it up, seeing as he had told Merton. It was uncomfortable to be with a girl the liked you, but a guy? And anyway, this went beyond like. His best friend was in love with him! The turmoil of emotions was worse than anything Tommy had ever felt before. And now he had a decision to make. Like going to college times ten. He couldn't just ignore his friend forever, but then that would probably be easier than facing it.  
  
No, maybe the easiest thing to do would be to ignore it, forget it ever happened. But that would mean he would end up ignoring Merton, or at least an important part of their friendship. Tommy didn't think he could ignore it now, because he has already admitted knowing Mert's true feelings about him. How could they have passed him by for all those years? And poor Merton, who had to contain them for those same years. No, it had been brought up, and Tommy would have to face it.  
  
The hardest thing to do would be to push Merton away. To deal with the wolf alone would be like wrestling a cobra without the anti-venom. He had never really thought about it before, but he was with Merton for hours each day. It would like giving up music, or color vision to never talk to Merton again.  
  
But maybe there was one other option.  
  
Merton was tapping him on the shoulder by the time Tommy realized Mert had repeated his question several times. Tommy sat back quickly, bumping into Merton, who had been hovering behind him to tap him on the shoulder. As he stumbled back, Merton repeated the question. "You'll probably want to be going home then, right?"  
  
Making up his mind, Tommy stood up suddenly, almost knocking over the chair. He leaned in towards his friend, hesitations aside, and attempted to meet Merton's luscious lips with his on. Unfortunately, he was off-balance, and Merton was as well, and so this little maneuver just ended up knocking both of them onto the floor.  
  
"What the hell was that!?" Merton demanded, scrambling up off the floor.  
  
"I.I don't know. Seemed like the thing to do at the time." Tommy said sheepishly, brushing himself off and sitting back in the chair.  
  
"Seemed like the thing to do?" Merton made his Tommy-just-said- something-stupid face. "Jesus, Tommy, this is more important than that!  
  
Again, Tommy put his head in his hands. "I know, I know. I just wanted to see what it would be like to.kiss you."  
  
A half-smile crossed the Goth's face. "Really?"-Tommy nodded-" Well, I suppose that might be okay, once or twice."  
  
Tommy grinned, then stood up and stalked predatorily towards his friend. Merton cowered in mock-terror, but then smiled and wrapped his not-un-strong arms around his friend. Tommy returned the gesture with amazing tenderness. As he did, Tommy wondered briefly why they had never done this before. It felt so natural, so right.  
  
The boys kept their eyes on each other, as they leaned slowly closer. Hazel ones sparkling with delight, blue ones with hardly contained anticipation. As their lips finally touched, both set of eyes closed in wonder at this new experience. They leaned closer, their chest touching as they kiss deepened. Tommy decided Merton's lips must be laced with silver nitrate, judging by the amazing tingling sensation that spread through his body.  
  
When they pulled away, gasping for breath, they looked at each other with new amazement. The Goth amazed that Tommy could actually want him *that* much; the jock amazed that Merton could possibly have been that good a kisser. They continued to stare at each other, in wonder of the blitzkrieg of desire they had both just experiences.  
  
The first to speak was Merton. "That.that was divine!" Tommy grinned in intense agreement. But then a cloud of doubt passed over his beaming face.  
  
"I'm not so sure about this." Tommy said, seemingly sorrowful of what he'd done. Merton's heart was on the verge of shattering. Then Tommy's face lit up. "Maybe we should test it once more, eh?"  
  
Smiling in relief, Merton happily complied, and again their lips met. The amazingly concentrated desire flowed through their veins anew, and Tommy was almost afraid he'd wolf out. Not that Merton would mind. Merton hands rested heavily on Tommy's chest, as if he'd fall over without his friends support. Tommy wove his fingers through Merton's dark, yet surprisingly soft hair.  
  
Wishing the kiss could last forever; they grudgingly pulled away, both practically glowing. They also grudgingly pulled their hands off each other, claiming hands instead.  
  
"That's better." Tommy sighed, and he smiled at his friend. Watching Merton's icy blues, he pulled Mert's hands up to his mouth, kissing each in turn. "No Merton, I don't want to go home. I never want to go home." 


End file.
